Wickham Festival News

Wickham Festival – COVID-19 UPDATE – Part 2

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As several other festivals have recently cancelled or postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we thought we should update you on our own Wickham Festival plans.

First and foremost, the health & safety of our artists, audience, staff & suppliers must come first. Our Festival can only go-ahead in August if, by then, it’s felt safe for it to do so.

At present, no mass gatherings are allowed anywhere in the UK due to Government restrictions. None of us yet know when those restrictions may be lifted and in what way.

Our view is that if Government restrictions are relaxed in time, our Wickham Festival will go-ahead in August as planned.

If Government restrictions are not relaxed in time, our Festival will be postponed to 5th-8th August 2021.

We want to keep the option of staging this year’s Festival open for as long as we possibly can. So much has changed in the past 5 weeks. No-one knows where we’ll be in 15 weeks time. If we can go-ahead in August we will with contingency plans in place to help ensure public safety.

If the peak of the pandemic has passed and it’s felt safe for people to leave their houses and enjoy the great outdoors again by August, we’re sure many people will be keen to do so. That said, we recognise there may be other people unwilling or unable to do so.

If our Wickham Festival does go-ahead in August we will allow anyone unable to attend the option of rolling-over your tickets to next year at no extra cost.

If our Festival does not go-ahead in August, all ticket-holders will be able to roll-over tickets to 2021. Refunds will also be available to those unable to attend our 2021 dates (5th-8th August 2021).

Wickham is run on a voluntary ‘not-for-profit’ basis with a shorter ‘build’ period than many bigger festivals. The local licensing authority are content for us to adopt a ‘wait & see’ policy as the situation develops. Crucially, our Medical Team are able and willing to provide our usual 24/7 medical cover without taking resources away from the NHS or other emergency services.

For all these reasons we can afford to wait for several weeks before taking a final decision on whether this year’s Festival can go-ahead as planned.

We expect the Government to indicate if some restrictions may start to be relaxed soon after the Bank Holiday weekend of May 8th-11th. We will update our Covid-19 advice to you then. We don’t expect any relaxation of the restrictions on public events until some weeks later. We will keep alive the hope of staging this year’s Festival for as long as we can but will have to take a final decision by 1st July at the very latest.

We hope this information is helpful to you. We will update it if anything changes. If you have any queries do please email us via eastfest@talk21.com and we’ll try to help.

Finally, may we thank you for your continued support at a very difficult & worrying time for all of us. While Government lockdown restrictions remain in place, please stick to them. Stay safe. We look forward to seeing you again at Wickham be it this August or in a year’s time.

With best wishes,
The Wickham Festival Team

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Let’s sign off with something positive … music!  Wickham regular favourites, Merry Hell, will be at Wickham Music Festival in August (Covid-permitting) with an electric band set Saturday and acoustic band set Sunday.  Here is their new great video ‘Beyond the Call (A song for our NHS)’ feat. Merry Hell with the Social Isolation Choir & Key Worker Chorus.

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  • Facebook Posts

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    A touch of bluegrass!  The Thumping Tommys will make their Wickham Festival debut on Saturday 2nd August.  https://www.facebook.com/thethumpingtommys  Day & Weekend tickets now onsale via www.wickhamfestival.co.uk

    A touch of bluegrass! The Thumping Tommys will make their Wickham Festival debut on Saturday 2nd August. www.facebook.com/thethumpingtommys Day & Weekend tickets now onsale via www.wickhamfestival.co.uk ... See MoreSee Less

    2 days ago

    8 CommentsComment on Facebook

    Fantastic

    Would love to have Kiefer Sutherland back with his band. They were brilliant.

    Don't know them, but they sound spot on Wickham Music Festival. Love a bit of Bluegrass 🎶🪕🎻🎶

    View more comments

    Another artist confirmed.  The ever-popular Phil Beer will be appearing solo at Wickham on Sun. 3rd Aug. as well as joining with Reg Meuross, Marion Fleetwood & Geraint Watkins to perform Fire and Dust: A Woody Guthrie Story.  Day & weekend tickets now on-sale via www.wickhamfestival.co.uk/tickets

    Another artist confirmed. The ever-popular Phil Beer will be appearing solo at Wickham on Sun. 3rd Aug. as well as joining with Reg Meuross, Marion Fleetwood & Geraint Watkins to perform 'Fire and Dust: A Woody Guthrie Story'. Day & weekend tickets now on-sale via www.wickhamfestival.co.uk/tickets ... See MoreSee Less

    3 days ago

    12 CommentsComment on Facebook

    Looking forward to the Woody Guthrie set

    That's the icing on the Wickham cake!

    Always such a fantastic lineup there…but also wow what a great photo!

    View more comments

    Our Twitter Feed

    The ever-popular Phil Beer will be appearing solo at #WickhamFestival on Sun. 3rd Aug. as well as joining with Reg Meuross, Marion Fleetwood & Geraint Watkins to perform 'Fire and Dust: A Woody Guthrie Story'

    Huzzah for @festivalwickham and Saturday 2nd August and another mighty HUZZAH for it is a particular favourite of ours, do thoroughly deserving of thrice Huzzah! http://Www.wickhamfestival.co.uk for tickets!! See you there. Is there time for one more Huzzah?

    We've updated the 'Line-Up' pages of our website to show who's playing (so far!) on which day. You can also view artist biogs & videos by clicking on artist photos.

    The wonderful singer-songwriter @NewtonFaulkner will make his #WickhamFestival debut on Friday, 1st Aug. Same day as @Fishy_Friends, @TaliskMusic, @FlookQuartet and many others.

    Another band confirmed! Legendary Geordie folk-rockers @lindisfarneband will headline the opening night of #WickhamFestival on Thursday 31 July.

    More artists confirmed! @IanProwse and Amsterdam will be at this year's #WickhamFestival on Sunday 3rd August. Ian toured with Elvis Costello last year and is touring with Levellers this Spring.